1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a picture signal processing method and apparatus, a picture signal recording method and apparatus and a recording medium relevant to the expression of a bitstream syntax of the MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) 2 standard concerning a large-picture size still-picture, a high picture quality still picture, an interval still picture or a thumb-nail moving picture.
2. Description of the Related Art
The MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) 2 is an encoding system used in broadcast or AV equipments, and which has become extremely popular as an information compression technique for pictures/speech/data.
Recently, there has been provided a high picture quality recording/reproducing apparatus having a CCD solid-state imaging device with a large number of pixels. It is occasionally desired to represent the still picture, imaged by such high picture quality recording/reproducing apparatus, in the form of a large-size still picture or a high picture quality still picture.
However, the recording/reproducing apparatus lacks in the degree of freedom in the size of representation because it is only possible to represent the still picture of a size determined in the MPEG 2 video standard.
For example, the maximum size picture that can be represented by the MP@ML (main profile/main level) of MPEG 2 is 720 (H) by 576 (V), so that, if a large-size still picture is to be represented from a still picture imaged by this high picture quality recording/reproducing apparatus, a separate hardware needs to be provided, thus raising the cost.
Also, in the method for representing the still pictures employing the MPEG 2 video standard, the frame intervals cannot be set optionally to, for example, one frame/second, one frame/minute or one frame/30 minutes.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a picture signal processing method and apparatus, a picture signal recording method and apparatus and a recording medium, in which the recording/reproducing function for a still picture can be optionally set by a user for realizing a large-size still picture, an interval still picture or a thumb-nail still picture that cannot be represented in a frame provided in the MPEG 2 video standard.
According to the present invention, as described above, a set of frames, such as non-consecutive I-pictures of the video sequence, is utilized for realizing the large-sized still picture or the high quality still pictures that cannot be represented by the MP@ML (main profile/main level) of MPEG2, whereby it is possible to realize a desired large size still picture or panoramic synthesis without necessitating special hardware.
According to the present invention, the user is able to set the interval of still pictures optionally so that an interval still picture, a thumb-nail moving picture or panoramic synthesis can be realized. Moreover, since the reproducing time can be processed freely, music software can be formulated to reproduce consecutive still pictures to the accompaniment of music, thus improving the function of the recording/reproducing apparatus embodying the present invention.
In addition, since a sole panoramically synthesized picture is reproduced by sequentially imaging and interconnecting plural still pictures, panoramic imaging becomes possible using a routine CCD solid state imager. Since the amount of motion vector across different frames, such as I-pictures, is detected, and is encoded only if the amount of the motion vector exceeds the pre-set value, it is possible to improve the processing efficiency at the time of generating the panoramically synthesized picture in comparison with the case of using the totality of frames.